Have you heard about Podcamp Topeka 2011? If not, go visit the website, read about it … and register! Podcamp Topeka is an unconference that my library helps organize and run. This will be the third year we’ve had it – it’s gotten better every year! This year, it’s on October 22 … and only costs $10 to register.

It’s not a library event … but librarians are certainly welcome to attend, and will definitely learn something and be able to contribute as well. What exactly is Podcamp Topeka? Here’s the blurb from the website:

PodCamp Topeka is a low cost unconference dedicated to emerging web media – social networks, podcasting & videoblogging, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, photography, and web design, for starters. Our goal? To learn about social media from social media experts, to network with fellow bloggers, podcasters & social media creators … and to have a blast!

And the video embedded in this post is me, giving some brief thoughts on why I like Podcamp Topeka. We’d love to see you there!

This past Saturday, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library co-hosted (with WIBW Studios) our first Podcamp – Podcamp Topeka. Don’t know what a podcamp is? It’s an unconference dedicated to web 2.0 tools and social media (read more about them here). It was a blast! You can some of my notes from the day here, watch my video about it above, and you can read Brandon Sheley’s notes here (he attended and lead a session or two), and even watch a quick video from channel 49 news.

So – how did I organize this thing?

OK – first things first. It’s a podcamp – there’s really not much conference planning to do. The details revolve around meeting rooms, food, and potential schwag – not the actual conference schedule. The important planning revolves around how many people you hope to attract – you have to have enough space to accomodate them. Also how long each session should be – and be able to accomodate that. Then, it runs itself (more on that in a minute).

Use your contacts for help. I poked around a bit on the interwebs, and found out Ryan Deschamps, cool librarian and blogger at The Other Librarian, had organized some very successful podcamps. So I asked him for tips, and he emailed me some great advice on how to run a podcamp.

Sponsorships – the library provided meeting rooms and our other sponsor, WIBW, paid for food and t-shirts. How’d that happen? In this case, I know Jim Ogle, the general manager of WIBW, and also know he’s excited as I am about social media and 2.0 stuff. So I asked him if he wanted to help plan the podcamp, and he did … and he ended up being a sponsor, too. For future events, I’m told that some local organizations might potentially be interested in sponsoring the event.

Ask for Specifics. Know how much money you need up-front, then ask specifically for your needs! Much better to have a plan for what you need (and what they’ll get out of a sponsorship) than to vaguely ask for “a sponsorship” hoping someone will provide what you need.

Registration: it was a free event, but I asked everyone to register, since a head-count was involved for t-shirts and food. Eventbrite worked GREAT for this! Free and easy to use – we had over 100 registrations. I was able to email a reminder to all attendees 3-4 days before the event through Eventbrite’s admin side. They actually sent me a couple of pre-event emails making suggestions on how to run an event (ie., do you have nametags?), too.

What actually happened?

People goal: our goal was up to 150. We had over 100 people register, and approx 50-75 people actually attend. Not bad for a first time.

Interestingly, we had an odd but fun mix of people. We had a variety of skill levels from experienced user of 2.0 tools to extreme novices and an age spread from probably age 20 -85 (someone actually came up afterwards and told me how old she and her friend were). So we improvised a “Basics of Social media” session that turned into one of our larger sessions.

Food and t-shirts: I went ahead and ordered t-shirts and food for 150, not knowing how many would really show up. So we had … a LOT of food. And I have a box of Podcamp Topeka T-Shirts in my office…

Schedule: You can see it here – we ended up with quite a few great topics and sessions!

Advertising: This is interesting. We advertised in our library newsletter, in 2.0 tools (twitter, facebook), on our website, at a social media group’s Ning site, and were lucky enough to get a TV spot or two (since WIBW was a co-sponsor). We asked attendees to fill out a “how you heard about this” flyer – only 22 people filled it out. But look at their responses to where they heard about our podcamp:

Yesterday, I spent most of my day at Podcamp Topeka – the first event I have ever organized. Judging by the comments, tweets, etc … it was a success!

If you want to read reactions from people who attended, search for #podcamptopeka on Twitter (ok – or just click this link).

I’ll post something next week about planning this type of event and what we could have done better. But for now, here’s a run-down of the sessions I attended – sorta sparse notes, but it’ll give you an idea of the day:

Session 1: Balancing Personal/Business Use of Twitter

you have ability to destroy yourself online

One guy doesn’t cuss in Twitter because it turns some people off

TV News guy – doesn’t say some stuff that he wants to

talking back & forth – sharing yourself is important

remembers he represents a company – always has that in the back of his mind

News guy again – because of sharing themselves on Twitter, they get news tips from people

Helps get stories written because he’s connected to twitter – because of the relationships they’ve developed

TV News guy again – they are talking to other local TV stations! Very different than five years ago

discussion about community/following people locally vs anyone for business

Session 2 – Comment Boxes and Community

I shared about the library

anonymous or profile?

Local newspaper tends to have crazies – not much registration/monitoring there

getting people to register – are there any non-bribery ways to get people to register? One idea – Business gave away free stuff to get sign-ups

other ways to share? Comment box, polls, ratings, etc – without just sharing in a text box

viral marketing campaign (I think she was from a radio station) – had some hateful comments – ended up having to block someone’s IP address

how to get more comments? Ask questions, ask what do you think

separate actual story from comments

part of your job should be commenting on other people’s sites

personal responses are great – gave example of that

personal is the new hand-written note

marketing is conversation now

deleting one comment vs turning off whole thread – which works best? We generally agreed that turning off the whole thread (like Flickr sometimes does) seems like punishing others for one person’s mistakes

twitter is instant gratification

Session 3: Selling Yourself in 30 Frames per Second

T-Rave presented from t-rave.com – He’s very passionate about videoblogging!

trying to sell your brand – many times, that means selling yourself

when you were a baby trying to get attention and affection, you were selling yourself – so you do this all the time

Not remembering if I’ve mentioned this or not … but we’re hosting a Podcamp at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library! It will be held on September 19, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm at the library, and we’re planning for an extremely fun and informative day. We’re planning for 150 people (74 have signed up so far!).

What’s a podcamp? It’s a FREE unconference dedicated to emerging web media – social networks, podcasting & videoblogging, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, photography, and web design, for starters. Our goal? To learn about social media from social media experts, to network with fellow bloggers, podcasters & social media creators … and to have a blast!

Yep – you heard right. It’s free. Thanks to our sponsors (WIBW and the library so far), the space, food (continental breakfast and a sandwich lunch), and a t-shirt are all free. All you have to do is register, show up, and … talk/network/learn/have fun.